Friday, February 23, 2018

Arming School Teachers: Trump's Dumbest Idea Dumber As He Doubled Down

What an NRA whore - president looks like.

"The proposal to arm teachers is a sign of civilizational failure." - Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor of The AtlanticOn watching Trump's recent photo op at the White House - where he's listening to the victims of school shootings, including those who lost friends or relatives at Stoneman Douglas last week - it was easy to be teased into thinking this POS would actually do something. That hope was dashed yesterday when he recycled the wacko idea of arming hundreds of thousands of teachers, a fool's errand properly shot down by most of those at the listening session. This A-hole is actually contemplating finding funds to "train and arm one million teachers."
At the White House press briefing on Thursday afternoon, Raj Shah, deputy press secretary, was asked if it was practical to expect teachers to carry concealed handguns to protect their students from shooters. The half wit imp replied:

“When you have a horrific situation, what you think and do not think is practical can change,” Shah said.

Proving neither he nor anyone else in the Trump White House has the mental capacity to do a full practical thinking exercise on likely outcomes. They just blow this effluent out their asses and believe it's a solution.

Two major teachers’ unions rightly expressed shock and skepticism that any such plan could be feasible or effective.

On Thursday, Trump tweeted: “20% of teachers, a lot, would now be able to … immediately fire back if a savage sicko came to a school with bad intentions. Highly trained teachers would also serve as a deterrent to the cowards that do this. They know they come into our schools they're gonna be dead."
Dead? THEY'RE going to be dead? "THEY" having possession of a military assault weapon that can unleash 30 rounds in a couple minutes facing off against a likely female teacher (76 % of teachers are female) with only a standard handgun? Are you out of your effing mind? What? Are you taking LSD and coke with your MickeyD burgers at night?
This is a fantasy that in the olden days, (1950s) - growing up in Milwaukee - we'd call beer talk. Big talk from some loopy guy too tanked up on fifteen Schlitz beers to even walk a straight line, but able to spout bollocks.

Let's put it more bluntly in case any starry eyed, wannabe gun heroes think this is a grand idea. That arming 20 or 40 percent of teachers at each school means no bad guy in his right mind would want to take any chances in that school. Just like the would be burglar who spots a "Beware of the Dog" sign in a front yard and figures it's best to go try the next place.For Trump, low IQ ignoramus that he is, it's all very simple: "The teacher's there with the gun - concealed carry of course - then pulls it out and shoots the guy."But this is fantasy bullshit and ignores the fact that an armed deputy was actually just outside of Bldg. 12 at Stoneman Douglas High while the AR-15 was firing. As teacher Sean Simpson put it: "Armed with only a handgun he'd have been a fool to confront the madman with an AR-15".He's correct. This explains why the school deputy (Scot Peterson) didn't step toward the firing scene for a full four minutes. This was according to Sheriff Scott Israel - who also, by the way - doesn't believe it's a capital idea to have armed teachers, e.g.http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/375003-florida-sheriff-comes-out-against-arming-teachers-teachersExcerpt:
“I don't believe teachers should be armed. I believe teachers should teach,” Israel said.

Adding:

“But that's exactly what's wrong with this country. We have people in Washington, D.C., representatives, senators and legislators telling teachers what they should do without asking teachers, 'what do you want to do?"

He also went on to say no 18 year old should be able to purchase such a weapon, and their numbers - the AR-15s and dozens of other assault models- need to be controlled. As he put it, "when you keep doing the same thing over and over and it doesn't work, that's insanity"

I do hope all the "gunnies" that quoted Israel before in a different context also take time to quote him now, because he is spot on correct. It is not a teacher's place to carry a concealed weapon, for potential use against a far better armed active shooter who in most cases will be using a military assault rifle like an AR-15. Besides, as Columbine teacher Paula Reid put it when interviewed on MSNBC two nights ago: "If a troubled student knows that I'm armed - because I don't wear those clothes that make concealed carry easy - he can literally take my weapon away and use it against others."

Good point, and this could even apply to an alleged "trained teacher."

Now, let's get more into the fine details of why arming 700,000 odd teachers is a dumbo idea, although it might sound plausible and do-able to those who entertain fantasies a la the vigilante Paul Kersey - in the movie "Death Wish".

Start with the fact that if a trained school deputy armed with only a handgun didn't feel competent to take on the shooter, why the hell would a teacher? Especially if an assault rifle -armed shooter already has the advantage in being able to empty a whole magazine before you're likely to get the safety off your handgun. If deputy Scot Peterson didn't feel able to take on Nikolas Cruz what would make anyone believe a teacher could?

That deputy likely didn't respond because he heard the rapid shots fired and the screams as he visualized the carnage It paralyzed him and I promise it would be no different for an educator forced to suddenly take on the fantasy role of "Rambo" with an inadequate weapon.

Could a well -trained teacher armed with only a handgun bring down the bad guy with an AR-15? Uh, yeah, IF..... the time is available to stand there and aim his-her handgun at the shooter.....

AND.... the shooter obliges by standing there frozen like a deer in the headlights, allowing the teacher to do it. In addition, the shooter - even if standing still as a statue - would have to further cooperate by deciding not to fire his assault weapon at the teacher with the handgun.

Pause now, collect your breath, and seriously tell me how you rate the probabilities for any of these to materialize. Let's also add for completeness, that even if all these conditions are met, the teacher would have to have a clear firing line - no students in the intervening space. Ideally, this would have to take place outside in a hallway, not inside a classroom where any number of students could become collateral damage.

Hell, the teacher herself - if holding a gun - can become collateral damage if law enforcement rushes onto the scene, guns drawn, and spots her as the only one wielding a weapon. As security specialist Malcolm Nance noted, given law enforcement officers are trained to react at the first sign of danger, the teacher would be shot on the spot. He emphasized all the loopy nonsense about arming teachers omits a key factor in any confrontation: target identification, which can become damned difficult amidst chaos and gunfire.

When you dissect the scenario the notion of arming teachers it clearly doesn't appear so easy or straightforward. But see, simple minds, e.g. simpletons like Dotard Donnie Trump, always imagine an ideal scenario for their fantasy to unfold. Say like placing their handgun hero in hallways in a school, to take down a suicidal shooter .

Even given these hare- brained fantasies, there is another fact the Trumptard purveyors of this idiocy don't want you to know: most bullets fired by even trained police officers miss their targets. The most frequent reason is the target isn't cooperating with being shot, he's on the move and maybe firing his own weapon.

One more thing, there is NO - I repeat NO form of training - that replicates the experience of going up against a real assault weapon that has already blown off the faces, arms, and legs of kids who were alive just minutes ago. There is no freaking training that duplicates the emotional, psychological experience that a teacher would encounter in an actual bloodbath scenario that is rapidly unfolding and in which the shooter has every advantage with his assault rifle. And what pray tell does the teacher do - now confronted with the shooter - who's already killed his students while the teacher himself is only armed with a handgun? (Note here for another set of fools: Even a Glock 9mm would be no match against an AR-15, and oh btw, I seriously doubt Trump and his gov't will cough up the $ for 700,000 Glocks!)

I'll give you one clue: it doesn't end well for the teacher. Indeed, the deputy armed with only a handgun at Stoneman Douglas may have processed the same, which is why he didn't engage the shooter, Nikolas Cruz. And make no mistake, no teacher this side of reality is going to be more accurate than a trained deputy or policeman will.

Idiot Trump meanwhile, with his demented fantasies, would put teachers in the position of using a handgun under unimaginable pressure and possibly killing one or more of their own students in the process by mistake. Oh, and do you believe if there are accidental killings of a teacher's students, the Trumptard government will rush to pay off liabilities? If so you are eating way more MJ candy than the users here in Colorado.

This is what you find when the bullshit is stripped away from these imbecilic armed teacher fantasies. Randi Weingarten, president of theAmerican Federation of Teachers union said in a statement:“Anyone who wants guns in schools has no understanding of what goes on inside them – or worse, doesn’t care.”

To top off yesterday's bravura performance of idiocy and ideology there was NRA honcho Wayne LaPierre squawking at CPAC about "losing liberty" and accusing the activist students and teachers, parents of exploiting the tragedy. This foul piece of ambulatory excrement barked:

"What they want are more restrictions on the law abiding. Think about that. Their solution is to make all of you less free."

Of course, he's a total moron as well as ideologue. He is also totally ignorant of 2nd amendment limits, which I cited before in the case of District of Columbia vs. Heller, e.g.

This case and Scalia's ruling makes it abundantly clear there is no unregulated, 2nd amendment right to own any assault type weapon. No one's "freedom" depends on it, and as Stoneman teacher Sean Simpson put it: "That's absolutely stupid to believe you and some neighbors armed with AR-15s could even handle a battle ready company with machine gun choppers, tanks, and RPGs firing!"

The Right's screechy ideologues - like LaPierre - also appear more obsessed about "crazies" and "Baker acting" them than the facts.Which are that not all active shooters are crazy, just mad - as in angry enough to get an assault weapon and exact vengeance. Thus, the Columbine killers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, weren't sick or crazy just enraged after months being bullied by the school's football jocks who also took turns stuffing them into lockers and dipping their heads into toilet bowls. (This,according to one of Harris' few pals interviewed on a '60 Minutes' episode.). Andrew Carneal, who carried out the West Paducah, KY school shooting, also wasn't nuts. He was just tired of being forced to run a daily gauntlet which entailed being smacked on the head with King James Bibles by hyper Xtian classmates..

While WSJ resident right wing harpy Kimberley Strassel, predictably wailed today (p. A11) about Democrats "willing to capitalize on dead teens" and "empty posturing" she said nary a word about the one thing that can change the equation: doing what Australia did after the Port Arthur tourist massacre in 1996. To jog memories, the Aussies banned all automatic and semiautomatic weapons and adopted new, more rigorous licensing requirements. They also bought back and destroyed more than 600,000 civilian owned firearms of the military -style, most lethal type. Result? Incidents in which a gunman killed 5 or more dropped from 13 in the 18-year period before 1996 to zero after. As I said before the proof is in the pudding. It's a cliche but it applies here.

Meanwhile, Donnie Dotard doubles down on this screwball solution (something only a screwball dope would do given 2 x a bad idea doesn't make it better) and calls the NRA lobby "patriots" when the only thing patriotic they want to do is make as much money as possible for the corporate weapons industry -which is why both the NRA and Dotard love the idea of arming teachers. It adds millions more gun sales to the profit margins..

"For him to insert himself into that grief, that if only Trump were there your child would have been safe, is totally vile. Using this ugly fantasy - in my view - is such a vile violation of the grieving that's going on in Florida. This is something of which only Donald Trump is capable."
- Lawrence O'Donnell on 'Last Word'

"He's afraid of life, afraid of sharks, afraid of blood.... He's always trying to be the hero, but he never can, because he isn't made of stuff. He's an empty, damaged soul and a coward at heart. We don't ask him as president to run unarmed into a building with an active shooter, but to do his damned job and govern!" - Jennifer Rubin on 'Last Word'

In another boffo display of idiocy and braggadocio - bravado, Trump insisted at a meeting with governors today that if he'd been on the premises of that school shooting he'd have barged in -even withouta weapon - and taken the shooter on. See e,g,

Can anyone say "dead man walking"? Because that is what this asshole would have been - and likely with about 15 AR -driven holes - compliments of Nikolas Cruz. That's assuming he' d actually have attempted such an obvious (to sane people) suicide mission. Which, when you strip away the beer talk and grasp Dotard's MO, was simply intended to shame the deputy (Scot Peterson) and any others who may have been on the scene but didn't place themselves in the line of fire of bullets traveling at 2800 ft/ sec. . Indeed, he prefaced his bold claim by saying about the Broward deputies "those guys weren't exactly medal of honor winners". This from a POS who used bone spurs to secure 5 deferments from military service in the Vietnam era.

In other words what Donnie Dotard would REALLY have done is maybe approached within 20 yards of Bldg. 12 at Stoneman Douglas, then - on hearing the deafening rounds - pissed his panties, then shit them up before running away at lightning speed. Don't believe me? Then reference these comments made about himself in a Howard Stern interview:

"I'm not good for medical stuff, you know. So in other words, like if you cut your finger and there's blood pouring out...I'm like gone."

2 comments:

The rounds from a Glock, e.g. 9mm, travel at much less the speed of the AR-15 (which is 2800 ft/sec) and the firing rate is roughly half that of the AR. Also, the magazines are more limited in capacity and hence to compete would have to be reloaded much more quickly in any "shoot out". Note: I am not saying the Glock user will be overwhelmed in *every* case, but that to out shoot the AR-15 user (who may also be decked out in Kevlar etc.) he or she had better be a superbly trained, preferably Navy Seal type who's been in multiple fire fights using only a Glock before

About Me

Specialized in space physics and solar physics, developed first astronomy curriculum for Caribbean secondary schools, has written thirteen books - the most recent:Fundamentals of Solar Physics. Also: Modern Physics: Notes, Problems and Solutions;:'Beyond Atheism, Beyond God', Astronomy & Astrophysics: Notes, Problems and Solutions', 'Physics Notes for Advanced Level&#39, Mathematical Excursions in Brane Space, Selected Analyses in Solar Flare Plasma Dynamics; and 'A History of Caribbean Secondary School Astronomy'. It details the background to my development and implementation of the first ever astronomy curriculum for secondary schools in the Caribbean.